St Gallen was to be the location for the Europeans this year, making it my fifth time in Switzerland representing England.

The competition is getting harder and harder, with the margins for error getting increasingly smaller. We were drawn in a section with Finland, Spain, Latvia, Belgium, Estonia, Hungary and Israel. All teams bar one had either been in the A division or in the playoffs to go up in the last four years. It was going to be a tough week.

When we joined together as a team 18 months ago we had the main aim of representing England in a European competition, if we were successful we would primarily aim to gain experience and stay in the B division. To do this in our group was going to be very hard, none of our opposition would be a walk over.

After a nervy start we managed a win against Belgium with our last stone. We were three down after three ends but hung in until the end. Finland were next up and the game was very tight, Aku Kauste made at least three great doubles to keep his team slightly ahead. His last stone in the tenth end was a perfect hit and roll behind a centre guard to force a tough draw to try and steal.

Despite controlling our next game with Israel right through, a miss with my last stone cost us the game. A loss which should have been a win. To stand within a chance of not being in the bottom two we needed another win. Estonia would be the closest game with it going to an extra end caused by two complete misses by myself! In the extra my first tap attempt picked up twice, firstly to look as though it was going to raise them in, then to pick again and miss both shots and sit biting the 8 foot on the wing. I would later use this stone to hit and roll for the win.

Going into the last game we were in a good position to secure B division status for 2018. We needed two good LSDs, a win against Latvia or Hungary to win. Fraser was first up with his LSD and covered the button, Ben then threw his and copied Fraser’s effort. With the main aim of the competition complete and no chance to qualify for the play offs we played Latvia and enjoyed it, rotating Ben out and Jim in on end 6. Now to enjoy ourselves and watch the A division games.

Back home, we continue our training both at Greenacres and the National Academy in Stirling. We have a few events coming up and a busy week with all of our rearranged league games in three days.

We would like to thank our coach Ken Horton for his efforts over the past year, without it I doubt we would be where we are. We would also like to thank Richard Harding at Greenacres for his accommodating ice schedule, Tony Zummack for his technical assistance during the summer and all who supported us throughout the competitions, both in person and on the other side of a screen. Finally, we would like to thank TLDallas for their support this season, it has been greatly appreciated and has eased some of the financial burden.